In a week that sees Batman casting his capitalist cape over
the whole damned country, here at Grimm Up North we’ll be offering an
opportunity to spend some quality time with bats of a far more sanguinary
persuasion, at our special VAMPIRE SUNDAY screening.

First up, we’ve an exclusive preview of gritty new British
indie THE HARSH LIGHT OF DAY, followed by a Q&A with cast and crew. Check out this for a synopsis: When the wife of a successful occult
writer is brutally murdered, and police fail to find the culprits, he is
offered a chance to mete out a very different, far more brutal kind of justice…
Combining vampires and vigilantism, this is Death Wish with fangs: a smart,
fast, brutal new take on the undead that is light years away from the current
deluge of dreary “dark romances”.

Hammer Horror always contained a frisson of eroticism amid
the thrills and chills; bodice-ripping and heaving bosoms being a staple from
the start. But THE VAMPIRE LOVERS is usually viewed as the film that
introduced more sexually explicit content into the movies. This is appropriate
enough, since it is an adaptation of J. Sheridan Le Fanu‘s classic 1872 novella
CARMILLA, which itself was the first vampire tale in English to explore
sex and sexuality, as well as being a major influence on Bram Stoker in the
creation of DRACULA. In Le Fanu’s predatory lesbian vampire, Mircalla,
Countess Karnstein, Hammer found an iconic character to rival the Count, and
they found the perfect person to - quite literally - flesh out the role, in the
form of the extraordinary Ingrid Pitt. A concentration camp survivor, a trained
pilot, and a karate black belt, the Polish-born actress brought earthy
sexuality, dark wit, and forceful intelligence to her portrayal. The film was
directed with characteristic no-nonsense pace and panache by prolific veteran
director Roy Ward Baker, who over the course of his lengthy career was
responsible for everything from the archetypal sinking of the Titanic film A
NIGHT TO REMEMBER, to the Marilyn Monroe
classic DON’T BOTHER TO KNOCK, to episodes of pretty much every single cult TV
show made in the 60s, 70s and 80s, as well as a whole string of Hammer
classics. Filled with such archetypal 70s faces as Kate O’Mara and Madeline
Smith and Pippa Steele, the film features

Hammer’s regular Van Helsing, the
inimitable Peter Cushing, very appropriately cast as General Von Spielsdorf,
the character who had inspired Stoker’s implacable vampire hunter and features
Arthur Daley himself, George Cole providing local colour - most of it blood
red. Ironically, in later life, Baker would find himself a regular director on
Minder. The film’s deft and dizzying combination of Hammer’s regular mix of
blood, boobs and bodices with some very 70s lesbian sex and sadism made the
film an instant success, inspiring two sequels, LUST FOR A VAMPIRE (Which we might just sneak into the line up on Sunday 22nd July) and TWINS OF
EVIL in what became known as the Karnstein Trilogy. Sadly, neither ex- au pair
and model Yutte Stensgaard nor former Playboy Pin-Ups Mary and Madeleine
Collinson were any substitute for the late, great Ingrid Pitt.

Just as LeFanu preceded Stoker, so an appearance by the
infamous Mircalla Karnstein can only lead in to one by the Count himself. DRACULA:
PRINCE OF DARKNESS, was the second of Hammer’s series featuring Christopher
Lee as Bram Stoker’s classic creation. Directed by Hammer maestro Terence
Fisher, it is notable for the fact that Dracula himself never actually speaks a
word. Lee claims that there was dialogue written, but it was so bad that he
refused to say it, though screenwriter Jimmy Sangster (quite understandably!)
disputes this. The film is also notable for the introduction of the character
of Father Sandor, played by Andrew Reid, a substitute for the series’ regular
Abraham Van Helsing, Peter Cushing, who was unavailable. Sandor later enjoyed
an unexpected secondary career, when he was resurrected, as “Father Shandor,
Demon Stalker” in a series of comic strips by writer Steve Moore and artist
John Bolton (and later David Jackson), which first appeared in the 1970s House
of Hammer comic magazine, and later in Warrior Magazine, where Alan Moore and
David Lloyd’s V FOR VENDETTA made its debut.

CAPTAIN KRONOS - VAMPIRE HUNTER was a radical re-working of the vampire myth, Kronos is now considered one of Hammer’s best works, having the foresight to let Avengers
duo Albert Fennell and Brian Clemens bring their surreal creativity to
the genre. Apparently it was supposed to lead to a TV series with Kronos
travelling all over time doing battle with all manner of dodgy
monsters. What a shame it didn’t happen. ‘Surprisingly brutal – there’s a lot of blood spurting from assorted necks and mouths, and the almost Airplane-like protracted despatching of poor old Doctor Marcus has to be seen to be believed’. British Horror Films

GOD OF VAMPIRES is a new UK release about a professional killer contracted to murder a Chinese
crime lord. But the routine hit goes awry when Frank discovers his mark
is actually an horrific Chinese vampire."God of vampires is like no vampire film you
are likely to have ever seen before! It is what a vampire film should
be! Blood sprays, bodies are torn asunder, Intestines spill, chainsaws
rev, bullets fly, acrobatic martial arts ensue and it is all
accomplished with a delightfully gruesome sense of humour!
Killingbox.com
"Full of action, gunplay, geysers of blood, chainsaw deaths and some truly creepy looking vampires." Dreadcentral.com
"Blade meets Mr. Vampire...An action-packed, gore-fest that is both a
fun and thrilling ride that doesn't let up till the very end."
Videoviews.com

CRONOS, Guillermo del Toro’s remarkable dark
fairytale re-imagining of the vampire legend might seem the odd one out in what
has been thus far a very British programme of cinematic chills. And yet there
is a connection. Del Toro claims that one of the primary influences on his
career as a filmmaker was Gary Sherman’s classic 1973 shocker, DEATH LINE.
Sherman’s depiction of the pitiful, strangely sympathetic inbred cannibal
troglodyte that stalks the London Underground was apparently a huge influence
on the depiction of the increasingly wretched, reluctant vampire, Jesus Gris in
CRONOS. (The name actually means “Grey Jesus”)

BLOOD
AND BONE CHINA is a
blood-soaked, bodice-ripping slice of Victorian Gothic, crammed with evil
industrialists, crusading female journalists, wise orphans, sinister
foreigners, literary in-jokes and more vampires than you can shake a crucifix
at, Chris Stone’s
award-winning cliff-hanger chapter-play for the 21st Century fuses
the aesthetics of classic Hammer with the lurid, fast-paced melodramatics of “Penny Dreadful” serial novels such as James Rymer’s VARNEY THE VAMPIRE. Steve Balshaw - Grimmfest Film Programmer.More on the history of Vampires and Bram Stoker, Here. More on Vampire Sunday Here

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GRIMM UP NORTH is Manchester's home of Horror, Sci-fi and Fantasy. We run monthly screenings, events and the annual film festival in October.
Grimm Up North! is Manchester's Premiere Horror and Sci Fi Festival.
Get ready for thrills, chills, bloody carnage and zombies on the loose!
Nightmarish narratives, retina-searing images and heart stopping shocks galore. Blood-soaked red carpet premieres, ghoulish guest appearances and much more! www.grimmfest.com